Friday, July 25, 2008

Quote of the Day: First Impressions

Paul Davies (British astrophysicist)

“There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all. It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe. The impression of design is overwhelming.” h/t www.y-origins.com

Davies' statement is not particularly "rational" - it is an intuitive, gut level response to near unfathomable complexity. That's fine, it's a valid reaction from a species whose brains, until the last couple of millenia, never had to grasp a numerical concept more complex than "many". But it's not "rational".

I heard a talk host say that the Bible was written by men, only men, not God, just men.He was so vehement about it the lady caller was put down over and over as she tried to defend the God of the Bible.Sad.I decided there was nothing that conservative could say that I wanted to hear anymore.Betty G

This is all very nice for him, but does this actually help him with real science?

The answer, obviously, is no. How does stating this actually advance science?

It doesn't.

As for the "atheist" response being emotional, well, in this case it's due to the emotional content of the origional post. It seems rkball is indirectly advocation scientific laziness.

But he will not answer questions raised by his posts...such as what is the nature of this so-called "tuner" (his answer will be the unsatisfactory "it's outside nature" BS), and why did it need to create the universe (which is the underlying thrust of these types of posts).

If rk has the balls to discuss this, he might actually start with giving us an actual scientific way to study the "designer". That would be a start.

"This is all very nice for him, but does this actually help him with real science?"

There is more to life than the pursuit of science, such as answering ultimate questions such as "why are we here", why does evil exist?, do we have a purpose for existence?, etc.

"But he will not answer questions raised by his posts...such as what is the nature of this so-called "tuner" (his answer will be the unsatisfactory "it's outside nature" BS)"

Which is why I am not going to answer your question.

"an actual scientific way to study the "designer". That would be a start."

What makes you think that science is the only way to study or know things? If you wanted to know something about me, would you have to conduct a science experiment? You can know about me from my words, my deeds, and you can know me by meeting me personally.

God's eternal power is clearly seen from the creation of the world. A being capable of creating matter, time, and space and laying down the laws of physics has tremendous power and intellect. The fact that he has created us as personal beings highly suggests that he himself is a personal being; this is a reasonable inference.

"But I doubt he will...."

I have in fact, fully discussed these questions in previous posts.

There are hundreds of blogs that tolerate rude language; this is not one of them -- please keep this in mind.